My Favorite Ad of 2016
It’s been a good year for Drake with his album, Views, now certifiably quadruple platinum and having closed out a stellar North American tour on the cusp of a new album drop and a European tour. And that run on sentence perfectly sums up the runaway growth of Drake’s career; with seemingly no end to the artists appeal, even celebrities and brands are looking to cash in. After a stellar deal with Apple Music, and helping to usher in the brand’s new service on the keynote stage, it’s no surprise the Champagne Papi is featured in an Apple Music ad.
To our delight, however, he isn’t anywhere to be found in the ad. Instead, we get Taylor Swift running on a treadmill to his hit song featuring Dirty Sprite dropping Future. /br What drives the ad home isn’t the fact that it answers the question “What does megastar Taylor Swift listen to when she works out?”, but that delightful moment at it’s conclusion when she face plants from getting a little too hype (we’ve all been there). Not ready to leave it there, Apple follows up the ad with a little weight lifting by October’s Very Own to his own hit, Sneakin’, featuring XXL Freshman list charting 21 Savage. When his spot leaves to take a phone call, Drake gets pumped to his *real* workout playlist featuring none other than Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood.
Following Apple’s initial streaming feud with the 10 time Grammy winning artist, it’s actually quite amazing to see Apple putting artists first (Taylor Swift’s initial concern) and demonstrating a clear integrated marketing strategy. Despite the device mishaps over recent months and delayed launches, Apple’s ad department continues to churn out Cannes Lions worthy content and, for that, I am titling the Drake/Swift Apple ads as my favorite of the year.
What a time to be alive, indeed.
That’s my favorite ad of 2016. What’s yours?
